Tobacco: ‘the guide that leads the blind on a false path which ends in a precipice’
In his endless kindness to Vajrayana practitioners, Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche quotes from the gTérmas of Chögyal Ratna Lingpa, Sang-gyé Lingpa, Rig’dzin Go’dem, Düd’dül Dorje, gTértön Longsel, Thugchog Dorje, Dro’dül Lingpa, and Ma-gÇig Labdrön, in order to explain the non-ordinary visionary history which illuminates the deleterious nature of tobacco. Warnings concerning tobacco have been revealed as gTérmas since the first spread of Buddhism in Tibet, and therefore authentic Nyingma practitioners cannot have association with tobacco. Düd’jom Rinpoche’s treatise deals with demonic intentionality as discussed in the gTérmas of the great gTértöns, and is thus mainly influential with those Vajrayana practitioners who have confidence in Padmasambhava and the gTérma tradition. It should, however, be of interest to other Buddhists—and to people in general—that such warnings have existed for so long and that they are so vehement.
Tobacco may also be purchased as a print-on-demand publication from the Aro Books worldwide shop. It may also be read online
